Singing the praises of kids who raised cash
Gaelic-speaking Perth school children have got themselves transport to compete in the Aberfeldy Mòd after a brother and sister completed fundraising challenges to get their group on the road and hopefully to competition glory.
Goodlyburn Primary School in Perth has a strong Gaelic Medium Education (GME) unit and they had high hopes of showing off their songs, poems and readings at the annual Gaelic contest held at Breadalbane Academy on June 9.
But there was no budget for getting them to and from the event and parents did not think it was eco responsible or affordable if each family went by car.
Siblings Libby and Eddie Gow put their heads together on how to pay for a coach and their mum Sandy Straker helped them set up a fundraising page.
Libby (8) decided she would spring into action and do a sponsored trampoline jump for 100 hours non-stop, only stopping for sips of water and to go to the toilet.
The day of the jump-athon was Sunday, May 21.
Her younger brother Eddie (6) likes his bike so, on the same day, he pledged to ride 5k around Perth’s North Inch. His dad was keeping him company for the bike ride, which was successfully completed.
Their online page explained the situation: “Our names are Libby and Eddie Gow, we are aged 8 and 6, and we both attend Gaelic Medium Education at Goodlyburn Primary School in Perth.
“We have been working really hard on our Gaelic singing, poetry recitation and reading, along with all our classmates.
“We got the bug for it when the Royal National Mòd came to Perth last year, in October. Since then, we have formed a Singing Club in our own time, we have participated in a local Perth competition, Perform in Perth and we have sung as part of a choir at a couple of local ceilidhs.
“Our next mission is to go to Aberfeldy on Friday, June 9, to participate in numerous fluent Gaelic categories at their local centenary Mòd.
“We are busy learning our new songs,
Pupils get themselves to Mòd
poems and readings already. Our school is paying the entry fees for each competition that we are entering, but we are trying to raise the funds towards our coach transport to Aberfeldy and back on competition day - and we really hope you guys can help us out.
“This means so, so much to us, and we really want to be able to represent our school and our families at this local Gaelic culture event, so we have decided to take on a challenge each.”
The kids were over the moon when they quickly raised £890, way more than their £520 goal to cover the bus hire.
It allowed them to consider going further afield.
“The Goodlyburn Gaelic children rather missed the boat when the National Mòd was held in Perth last October, we didn’t
get organised in time to enter,” said Sandy.
“We so wanted to get involved with the next one which is to be held in Paisley.
“So now having some extra money raised beyond what we need for attending Aberfeldy, we’d like to keep on fundraising and see if we can bag enough to travel to Paisley in the autumn.”
Another Goodlyburn pupil, their pal Leena Valluri, was “inspired” by Libby and Eddie’s cash-drive and came up with one of her own.
Leena collected sponsor money from her extended family, and the other week climbed Moncreiffe Hill with her dad and their family dog.
Sandy was delighted to hear about Leena’s big walk: “Bless her - it was 4.6 kilometres all in, and she totally smashed it, and made an extra £80 towards the Gaelic kids going to Aberfeldy Mòd.
“I feel pretty damn proud of my kids most days anyway, but when I heard Leena saying that she wanted to ‘do something just like Libby and Eddie were doing, for a good cause’ I just about burst!”
Goodlyburn GME has more success to be celebrating as teacher Christina Mcgregor is a finalist at the Scottish Education Awards 2023, in the category of Gaelic Education Award, sponsored by Bòrd na Gàidhlig.
Anyone willing to help the Goodlyburn bairns, the link to the fundraiser is: www. gofundme.com/f/please-help-us-get-toaberfeldys-centenary-mod